Britain has a plethora of sketch comedy groups, many of which have been given their own TV shows, but yeah, I can't remember ever seeing anything similar on American TV. Saturday Night Live seems to be the closest you have, although the cast is constantly changing on that, it does feature a fair bit of absurdist comedy though.

Kids in the Hall remind me a lot of Python, although they are Canadian of course.

They both have hit or misses. There's probably some filtering for quality or at least popularity before Brit shows get distribution over here. We get dozens of crappy new shows every season that get quickly cancelled off. I'm sure the same is true over there and we just don't see them.

Britain has a plethora of sketch comedy groups, many of which have been given their own TV shows, but yeah, I can't remember ever seeing anything similar on American TV. Saturday Night Live seems to be the closest you have, although the cast is constantly changing on that, it does feature a fair bit of absurdist comedy though.

Kids in the Hall remind me a lot of Python, although they are Canadian of course.

Britain has a plethora of sketch comedy groups, many of which have been given their own TV shows, but yeah, I can't remember ever seeing anything similar on American TV. Saturday Night Live seems to be the closest you have, although the cast is constantly changing on that, it does feature a fair bit of absurdist comedy though.

Kids in the Hall remind me a lot of Python, although they are Canadian of course.

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My favorite right now is Key & Peele on Comedy Channel. It's more understated but Portlandia on IFC is sketch comedy. In thr past there was In Living Color, Chapelle, The State, probably others I'm missing I'm sure.

My problem with Saturday Night Live is that they use random guests like Johnny Carson or David Letterman would do. It works for TV talk show hosts because they're able to make the conversation humorous without having that burden placed on the guest.

SNL however will have various guests participate in a sketch where they follow a script. The problem there is that just reading/acting from a comedy script is not going to make it funny. And since many of the guests are not comedians, or particularly funny, SNL has had a number of skits where non-funny people are attempting to come across as funny. And often times it just doesn't work.

MPFC were not special guest oriented, so they didn't have that problem.

Ironically one has the mother from one of the kids form the Sarah Jane Adventures and the other has the tv-dad of the same kid.

Life after science fiction.

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Yeah, Black Adder is old too. The first series came out in 1983 and the last one in 1989. Hyfen_Underskor didn't mention age in his post. So what's your point? That you missed out on some American TV shows?

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That's true that I didn't mention age, but that was my general idea. Those shows you mentioned were fairly common for the 60's, and pretty much ended there.

Although I never became a viewer of Third Rock From the Sun, and have my doubts that I would enjoy it, the show does have a similar storyline typical of the 60's where comedies did use unusual, non-conventional families (hillbillies in rich neighborhoods, cavemen transplanted into the modern era, witches, genies, goths, Universal studio monsters, etc.).

Like Have I Got News For You? I've wondered this myself, but I'm guessing the reason is because those shows wouldn't be able to get anything beyond B-, C- and D-list guests since the A-list crowd is clearly too good/busy/much of a moron/coked up to appear on a silly panel show.

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That and a good portion of Hollywood isn't open-minded. Watch Mock the Week and they trash everyone in politics. The Tories, Labour and the Lib Dems are not safe, whereas (I don't intend for this to spark any kind of debate) if you tried an American Mock the Week, it would be incredibly one-sided and it would be 95% trashing the Republican Party.

Like Have I Got News For You? I've wondered this myself, but I'm guessing the reason is because those shows wouldn't be able to get anything beyond B-, C- and D-list guests since the A-list crowd is clearly too good/busy/much of a moron/coked up to appear on a silly panel show.

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That and a good portion of Hollywood isn't open-minded. Watch Mock the Week and they trash everyone in politics. The Tories, Labour and the Lib Dems are not safe, whereas (I don't intend for this to spark any kind of debate) if you tried an American Mock the Week, it would be incredibly one-sided and it would be 95% trashing the Republican Party.

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While still one-sided but to the right, there is a odd duck panel show on Fox News called Red Eye but it only airs at 3AM(!) on weeknights.